-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- After the fall of the Berlin Wall , East Germany lay in shambles as many businesses went bankrupt and millions of people lost their jobs .

Some firms , however , got back on their feet and revived the `` Made in Germany '' trademark by harnessing the expertise of their workers . Their aim was to become , once again , a global brand .

CNN travelled to the town of Glashütte in Saxony , known as the birthplace of the German watchmaking tradition . Here , watchmakers such as A. Lange & Söhne and Nomos Glashütte among others have thrived since the fall of the Wall and have since exported their high-end watches to the rest of the world .

German craftsmanship

It is companies like these which put their personal , unique stamp on a timeless piece which is n't assembled overnight , explained A. Lange & Söhne . `` It takes about four weeks for a watchmaker to put this piece together . And to learn to do this you need about five to ten years of experience , '' said Marco Wolf , a watchmaker at A. Lange & Söhne , one of the longest-running high-end watchmakers in the world .

The hand-crafted timepieces , all mechanical and made with microscopic precision , are carefully created in the former Communist town of Glashütte .

`` That is what our customers appreciate . The love for details striving for perfection . All that with typical German attributes like solidity , cleanliness , understatement . I think that combination is what drives people and what makes them our customers , '' said Wilhelm Schmid , CEO of A. Lange & Söhne .

Attention to detail goes beyond the surface , according to Schmid , who describes how even tiny parts of the watch the customer will never see are engraved . `` And each engraver has his or her own signature style , '' he added .

All in the family

The company 's namesake , Ferdinand Adolf Lange , founded Glashütte 's watchmaking tradition in 1845 . The industry flourished and for over a century Glashütte was Germany 's watchmaking capital .

But all that changed after World War II , when Glashütte suddenly found itself in the Communist east part of Germany . All the watchmaking companies were nationalized and forced to build cheap watches , some of which were secretly sold in the West .

After the fall of the Berlin Wall , much of the watch industry was able to get back on its feet , explained Schmid . `` There was still talent here . They were working on different watches than we are working on here today , but the talent generally speaking was there , '' he said . `` So all we had to do was help them to get to the next level . ''

Bouncing back

Fortunately for those companies , Glashütte has revived as Germany 's capital of watchmaking once again , employing more people than it ever has . Of the town 's 1,800 residents , 1,500 work in the watchmaking industry .

Watchmaker Nomos Glashütte is another example of the area 's growth in the past 25 years . The company , formed two months after the fall of the Berlin Wall , says its focus on design has pushed it forward in the past 25 years . `` We have brought great and unique design to Glashütte , '' said Uwe Ahrendt , CEO of Nomos Glashütte . `` We make beautiful watches and our timepieces come at very good prices , '' he said .

In an era of start-ups and cheaper products being made at a fraction of the cost , the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is a reflection of how resilient these particular watchmakers have been , and how adaptable they are in the global landscape .

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Glashütte , a small town in Germany has a rich heritage of watch making

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Glashütte watches are mechanical and handcrafted

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The workshops were nationalized after WW II as the town was in East Germany

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However , they have been restored to former glory since the reunification